Immigration Backlash

Cover image from the Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report on the backlash against Latino immigrants. Courtesy SPLC.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has devoted its Winter 2007 Intelligence Report to documenting a racially-fueled backlash against Latino immigrants, perpetuated among both fringe white-supremacy groups and mainstream media, including CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." One of Dobb's frequent guests, Dan Stein, is president of the SPLC-designated hate group, Federation for American Immigration Reform, whose ties to eugenics the Intelligence Report also covers in its Winter 2007 issue.

The results are no less tragic for being predictable: Although hate crime statistics are highly unreliable, numbers that are available strongly suggest a marked upswing in racially motivated violence against all Latinos, regardless of immigration status. According to hate crime statistics published annually by the FBI, anti-Latino hate crimes rose by almost 35% between 2003 and 2006, the latest year for which statistics are available. In California, the state with the largest population of Latinos in the country, anti-Latino hate crimes almost doubled in the same period.